1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a defect review operation concerning products or components being manufactured. Particularly, the invention relates to a system for improving the efficiency of the process of determining conditions in a tool for detecting particles or pattern defects on the surface of a semiconductor wafer, photo mask, magnetic disc, or liquid crystal display substrate, for example.
2. Background Art
In semiconductor production, particles or pattern defects on the surface of a wafer during the production process may lead to defective products. Therefore, it is necessary to quantify such particles or pattern defects (to be hereafter referred to as defects) and constantly monitor the manufacturing equipment or environment for possible problems. It is also necessary to observe the shape of such a defect so as to determine if it could have a fatal impact on the final product.
Conventionally, such observation of shapes has often been conducted manually by an operator. This has resulted in problems such as the presence of a bias in the position of a defect in the observed object depending on the operator, or the lack of uniformity in the defects to be observed. In order to solve these problems, technologies are being introduced such as automatic defect review (ADR) and automatic defect classification (ADC). For example, a system has been proposed for reducing the burden on the operator and facilitating an efficient operation when observing or reviewing a part (such as a pattern formed on a wafer) that has been inspected by a wafer inspection tool using an SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy) defect review tool (see JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-135288 A, for example). A means has also been proposed for arranging the enormous amount of information including the defect ID (identification number) and coordinates information provided by the wafer inspection tool and the ADR and ADC information provided by the defect review tool, thereby facilitating defect analysis (see JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-156141 A, for example). According to this proposal, the information provided by the wafer inspection tool consists of the name of product and wafer identification numbers, such as the lot number and wafer number, the name of the process step under investigation, and the coordinates information about a detected defect, for example.    Patent Document 1: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 10-135288 A    Patent Document 2: JP Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2001-156141 A